Layer Off in Viewports Chris Kuenning sent in a tip discussing the freezing of layers in viewports and how to control the Freeze settings to get the command to work the way you want it to.

"When Autodesk moved the Layer Tools from Express Tools to standard AutoCAD, they changed the default setting of Layoff from Layer Off to VPFreeze while working within a viewport, which means if you turn all layers back on using Layon, those entities that are on layers that were turned 'off' within a viewport, will not show in that viewport. Why Vpfreeze is the default, I don’t know, because if you wanted to freeze a layer in a viewport you could use Layfrz.

"To change this setting enter Layoff at the command prompt; enter 'S' for Settings; enter 'V' for Viewports; enter 'O' for Off. Now you can turn layers off in peaceful bliss, knowing that when it’s time for Layon, all entities that should be there, will."

NOTES FROM CADALYST TIP PATROL: I like the ability to freeze/thaw layers in viewports, but that doesn’t mean everyone does. With the VPFreeze setting on, you can create multiple viewports (or tabs) that can show certain linework in one viewport and not in the other. Without it, that one layer is either on or off throughout the entire drawing file, which of course may be fine for your drawing and it often is, but this can confuse things at times. You never know when or where a layer will turn up if it was frozen in a viewport, or not!